Turning over the interactive whiteboard pen to a small group of students can require a leap of faith. Those things are expensive, and some of them can break if you look at them too hard. But the benefits of using the whiteboard as a center outweigh the risks. Here are 3 tips for creating successful small-group English/Language Arts activities for your whiteboard center.

At my school, 21st Century learning is an intrinsic piece of our philosophy and teaching methodology. We have a 1:1 iPad program, implement a flipped instructional model, use NearPod and Doceri for classroom presentations, and students often create screencasts, Prezis, and iMovie projects. We are always on the lookout for the newest innovations and methods for making our lessons more interactive, meaningful, and relevant.

But not every teacher is ready to take on the challenges associated with a true 21st Century classroom. Here are some tips for how schools can support teachers who are a little tech-shy and produce a dynamic and collaborative community of teachers.

Play With It

I remember years ago getting an interactive whiteboard in my classroom. The training representative came in and wowed me by creating a Jeopardy-like game, manipulating tiles around the board and inserting sound clips. He did this in about 10 minutes, and I was sold; however, when it came time for me to use my own interactive board, I could barely write on it. My students complained about the lack of touch response, and soon enough, my interactive board became a plain old white board. I used to tape index cards to it to play Jeopardy. Teacher training is still important, but nothing beats diving right in and playing with a new piece of technology, whether its a Learning Management System or a fun spelling app. Play around with it, and feel free to click that “Need help?” chat screen at the bottom. It’s likely that a customer service representative is on the other end and can’t wait to walk you through the program.

Ask for Help

If you can’t figure something out through trial-and-error, customer service help, or Youtube tutorials, why not go to a colleague? Chances are, if you’re having difficulty using or implementing a specific piece of technology, someone else has had the same problem in the past. And don’t forget about your students! This is an excellent opportunity to engage our gamers and coders. Ask them to demonstrate how to use an app. There are experts all around us.

Be Patient and Have a Backup Plan

One of the biggest challenges with technology isn’t learning how to use it, but dealing with bugs and roadblocks. If your schools’ internet isn’t robust enough, your laptop or tablet hasn’t been updated or upgraded recently, or an app simply crashes, make sure you have a low-tech or offline backup plan. There’s nothing worse than preparing a fantastic, tech-based lesson and finding out that the schools’ internet is down.

Set Small Learning Goals

It can be intimidating for teachers who are new to technology to dive right into learning how to set up an online course on a Learning Management System or become entrenched in the SAMR model. Instead, teachers can start with educational video resources such as TED or Khan Academy and slowly roll out a few key apps for students to use with consistency. Tools 4 Students is a basic graphic organizer resource, Toontastic helps younger kids write and animate short stories, and IXL provides students with practice in Math and Language Arts that meets Common Core Standards. ClassDojo can help teachers track and monitor student behavior and even increase positive communication with parents, and best of all, students can take the lead on all of these pieces of technology. Put the power in their hands.

Keep Learning

Technology constantly evolves and programs reinvent themselves. As soon as you have mastered a particular program or piece of software, you can bet that the newest update will look completely different (I’m looking at you iMovie!). Like teaching itself, learning new technology requires educators to constantly return to being a student. Learning new technology can breathe new life into teachers and classrooms alike. Never stop learning.

If your students are looking tired in the afternoon or haven’t quite woken up yet in the morning there are a handful of ways to grab their attention. When you are looking to hook students at the beginning of a lesson, try incorporating videos into your instruction.

There are tons of fantastic resources for high quality content that can be used throughout the school day in a variety of subject areas. These sites offer a wide range of resources that teachers can share with students. It’s so important that students are paying attention and feel like what they’re learning is connected to the real world. You can help them make these connections by placing the content you are teaching in the context of real life events and everyday situations.

One online resource that is perfect for accessing content to engage your students is the Discovery Channel. They have a terrific website that lets visitors pick and choose which clips they want to watch. There is also a YouTube channel full of their content which makes it easy to add links to student assignments or even embed a video in a class website or presentation. If you are sharing videos straight from your tablet, or want students to open a particular clip, you may want to check out their mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

Whether you access these clips on their website or mobile apps, you’ll have plenty to choose from. Help students get excited about using context clues by introducing them to ocean vocabulary during a Shark Week quote. Ask students to summarize the conclusions drawn from a MythBusters experiment. And don’t forget to keep track of which students are “on task” and demonstrating the traits you reward in your classroom!

It always rankles me to hear derisive comments about teachers’ breaks (“we get too many”) and summer vacation (“we don’t deserve it”). Though I’m a much more efficient teacher than I was early in my career, when I was regularly up past midnight and my gradebook became an extra appendage, I learned that teaching is both a lifestyle and a job.

Yes, breaks are part of that lifestyle, but so is time spent working nights and weekends from home, time spent beyond circumscribed hours for tutorials and extracurriculars, and time spent planning and developing new materials and instructional strategies. I often look forward to breaks so that I have time to do more work!

There are days when I’m so busy that it’s difficult to get a bathroom break and I have to eat on the go. I love it, but the responsibilities that teachers have are many and growing. That’s why our breaks are not only welcome but also necessary; they provide the opportunity to catch up, recharge, and avoid burnout. As we transition from the end of the school year to summer, there are a number of strategies to renew energy and enthusiasm.

Indulge in a creative outlet

I love to bake. I think I’m happiest when planning and executing a new recipe; the kitchen is my sanctuary. I make sure that I bake a few times a week, since I don’t have time to do that much during the school year. It’s so important to have a creative outlet and to nurture that interest which translates into higher quality work.

Get organized

I take the opportunity during breaks to organize as much as I can. Organization doesn’t come easily to me, so I constantly work on it. On breaks, I organize all of my upcoming lesson plans and materials, as well as student assignments. When I have the time, such as on longer breaks, I organize around the house. My major project for last summer was to organize the 5000+ photos our family has. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done, and it’s easier for me to concentrate when my environment is orderly.

Do your homework

It seems counterintuitive that working on a break can reenergize us, but research can lead to stimulating new ideas. Beyond planning for upcoming units, breaks are a wonderful opportunity to read the latest educational magazines, pore through sample textbooks and educational books, and search for new materials and ideas. I often find strategies to implement that reignite my passion for what I teach and how I teach.

Embrace novelty

Breaks provide an opportunity for new experiences; new experiences often lead to new ideas. Novel experiences also support emotional well-being. Local museums and public parks are often free or low cost resources for adventures. Websites such as VolunteerMatch can help match you with appropriate opportunities for volunteering. Cultivate a new interest. Wander around your local library and check out the programs and trips offered. Throw a themed party. Begin a new exercise routine. See a play, watch a new movie, go to a concert. The possibilities are endless!

RELAX

We need the occasional lazy day to rest both mentally and physically. When I’m feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, I prioritize. Quite often, what seems urgent can wait. Our well being comes first, and giving ourselves permission to relax allows us to decompress and avoid feeling burned out. We spend a great deal of time nurturing others; we need to remember to nurture ourselves.

Whatever you choose to do over the break, I hope it’s enjoyable and that you return for the new school year feeling refreshed and enthusiastic.

Students get sent out of classrooms everyday. They are either sent to spend the day in the office, another teacher’s classroom, or sent home if they happen to be suspended. This is a punitive way of dealing with discipline and does not build on the student’s academic or social participation in their classroom community. In fact, students who spend an extended amount of time outside of the classroom, especially on a suspension-type consequence, are 23% more likely to drop out of school, according to a 2006 study in Florida. They are also more apt to being suspended again.

Why do these students who are suspended or sent out of classrooms for extended periods of time have a higher rate of dropping out or getting suspended? There are a number of possibilities. When being sent out of the classroom, the student consequently misses class work. The student then needs to do more work to catch up, and this can be frustrating. The student might act out because of this and then get sent out of the classroom again, further widening the gap between the student and his/her peers.

So what can we do, as educators, to not use punitive measures, like suspensions, while still keeping the classroom safe? A possible solution is what I like to call ‘buddy classrooms’. These classrooms are designated at the beginning of a school year, where two teachers agree to use each other’s classes as either ‘work classrooms’ or as ‘I need a break classrooms’. In this model, the teachers can give a student a pass to just have a different space to get their work done if they are unable to function as their best self in a classroom. There is a time-limit set on each work classroom, as to get the student ready to come back to the community in a safe way. If the student just needs an emotional break, this would function in the same way, with a time limit, and again, the end result having the student back in the classroom within the day, and even within the hour.

The goal is to have the student back in the classroom as soon as he/she is ready. Independence and self-monitoring of behavior can become a classroom norm. When a student needs a break, he or she can choose to take that time without teacher interference. Of course, this procedure has to be explicitly taught, modeled, and monitored (and should be grade appropriate). This gives control to the student while also keeping the classroom and the student on track academically and socially. Everybody wins 🙂

Have you ever heard or said a version of the phrase “Technology (or the Internet or computers) brings the world into the classroom”? While undoubtedly that’s true, video conferencing offers the chance to connect with real people outside the classroom in real time, which is a valuable learning opportunity.

Mystery Skype

You may only know Skype as a way to talk to out of town relatives. But Skype is also a valuable resource for educators!

A great way to use Skype in the classroom is Mystery Skype—a “global guessing game” played by two classrooms. Each class gets 20 questions to figure out where in the country or world the other class is. Mystery Skype can also be used to bring in virtual guest speakers to talk with students about a fun career or a subject you’re studying. Finally, Mystery Skype can be used as a tool for students to practice a foreign language with native speakers and for English language learners to hone their English skills. Visit Skype’s education page to find participating classrooms and speakers.

Google Hangouts

Like Skype, Google Hangouts is another free way to bring guest speakers into your classroom. But Hangouts has some additional and useful features. Hangouts makes it easy to have multiple people in a conference at once, which you can use to host a virtual career day or a debate about a topic. Hangouts also allows screen sharing, which makes it easy for speakers to show a presentation or other documents while talking to your classroom.

In addition to connecting with other classrooms or bringing in guest speakers, you can use video conferencing to bring parents into the classroom to watch student presentations without requiring them to leave their home or office. Oh, and both these tools can be used for free!

And remember, safety first. Before using any videoconferencing in the classroom:

• Inform students, school administration, and parents. Detail in writing who will participate, when the conference or chat will take place, and its purpose.
• Work with the outside participant(s) to set ground rules. Rules may include who will be present and whether the conference can be recorded.

First time mentoring a student-teacher? After having many student-teachers in my classroom over the years, I wanted to share some of my best kept secrets !🙂

1) Focus on only one or two development areas at a time. Let them know what your focus will be. I had a mentor who would only give feedback on what I was doing wrong. Even after sharpening up in the areas she had perviously mentioned, she would instantly move on to the next thing I was doing wrong. I had no idea what my strengths were or what I should focus on.

2) Try to space your feedback. Giving specific feedback every lesson is can be excessive and overwhelming. Just like you, your student-teacher needs time to reflect on the lesson before they are able to make changes to their practice. I prefer to give feedback once a week at a set time.

3) Remember to praise! Being a student-teacher can be emotionally taxing. If they are on the right track, let them know. They might even come up with new teaching strategies that you want to try out — let them know you appreciate their ideas.

4) Show them how it’s done! After all, you are a mentor for a reason. I try to showcase the things that really make a difference for my classes. Some of the things we do as teachers are subtle, don’t be afraid to flag them up for the benefit of the student watching.

5) Consider what makes your teaching style unique and effective, and share this with your student-teacher! One of my amazing mentors had thousands of tips and tricks to tell me about. He could break down his technique into handy chunks and tell me about each step. He also had great advice about the non-classroom side of teaching. I think there’s a little bit of his style in my teaching today.

6) If you can, have your student-teacher sit in on parent/teacher conferences. They can either sit back and listen or contribute to the discussion. After all, they will need to know what to say when it is their turn.

7) Ask the student-teacher how they think a lesson went. People often have a very good idea of where they are going wrong already and just need your expertise for how to avoid it in future.

8) Enjoy it! Having someone in your classroom who has fresh insight into new teaching practices can give you amazing ideas and can help rejuvenate your practice.

If you give a man a fish….or in my case, if you attach a file to an email for a colleague, they will never learn to be self sufficient with technology! I have quite a few friendly neighbors who still call me frantically when their printer won’t work, only to have me rush over and plug it in. This is funny the first few times and makes me feel useful, but does it really help anyone? It is hard not to shake my head when this kind of thing happens (which is quite often), but it doesn’t help the problem.

We’ve heard about the digital divide amongst our students, but what about the digital divide between younger and more veteran teachers? And does it matter? I believe it does. A teacher’s attitude toward technology can have a huge impact on student learning, so I made it my mission to be a technology ambassador at my school, and if you’re even remotely tech savvy (if you’re reading this, you are) you should, too.

Here’s Why: Growth Mindset

Hopefully you’ve heard about all of the research by Carol Dweck out of Stanford about Growth Mindset. I so often hear teachers say, “I’m not techie” or “I can’t figure out computers.” What they may not realize, is that they are demonstrating their fixed mindset to their students. An easy change would be for them to say, “I’m still learning how to use computers” or “I haven’t learned how to do this yet, I need help.” But for some reason, this is often a black and white issue for certain people, and they feel they are either good with computers or not. A common trait amongst these naysayers I’ve observed, is the fear of failure. Those of us who are comfortable using technology with our students aren’t afraid of technical difficulties, or appearing not to know something. For some teachers, this is extremely uncomfortable.

Here’s How: Change Attitudes, Encourage Risk Taking

The first thing I did at my school was hold an all inclusive, tech 101 workshop for tech-phobic teachers. Without judgement, I walked them through the basics, from how to turn on the machine, to how to attach a file to an email. Without rolling my eyes, I let them go at their own pace, and ask questions they’ve always been too embarrassed to ask, (like, what is the cloud? And what’s an MP3?). The next step is to ask your colleagues what they would like help with. You’re not going to gain any followers by trying to teach them to code in their first workshop. They may just want to learn how to troubleshoot their classroom technology, so that’s where you should start. After that, you can slowly introduce tools that you think are useful, such Google Drive or ClassDojo, but don’t start with these. Make sure you allow a lot of time for exploration, everyone should have a device in front of them while you demonstrate and you shouldn’t move on until they’ve caught up. Sound familiar? Yes, this is just good teaching! Adult learners differ from kids in many ways, but when it comes to trying something new, we all bring different experiences to the table. We all need time and room to fail.

If you have 1:1 devices in your classroom, first, take a minute to give thanks! After that, think about some of the great opportunities you have to differentiate instruction with your students using these devices. There are a lot of great resources that will track and assess your students’ work, responding to their needs and moving them forward accordingly.

My favorite is a little-known company—you may not have heard of it—called Khan Academy. Ok… it’s no secret. Many people know about this video-based lesson platform. However, many teachers think that’s all it is—YouTube for Math class. Take another look. Their new teacher dashboard system has all the bells and whistles when it comes to adaptive learning. You start your students off by taking a placement test, and then Khan suggests lessons for them based on how they did. You can override those suggestions at any time, if you need to. On top of that, Khan’s student-facing LMS is very game-like, which keeps the kids interested and pushing to ‘unlock’ the next level. If you want more information, check out my post from a few months ago.

For English/Language Arts (ELA), I would look into MyON. This online library isn’t free, but it’s worth talking to your principal about setting up a trial subscription. The system is web-based, so you can use it whether you have laptops, iPads, or mobile devices. You can assign readings to your students, allow them to choose, or let the system provide recommendations to them. The recommendations are all based on Lexile level, which is determined by a pre-assessment that students take when they first sign in. Probably the most useful aspect of this service is that it tracks all student reading time. Since research shows there’s a correlation between test scores and the time spent reading per day, a service like this is very useful. Consider creating a contest based on minutes spent reading.

There are a lot of other adaptive learning systems out there, and they can make it seem like you have several teacher assistants in class with you at all times. Take a minute to look into a few of them, or ask colleagues or members of your PLN about what has worked for them.

Most teachers are always looking for new ways to get their students interested in reading. One of our favorite reading activities is a “Read to the Top” contest. In these contests, much like in some local library summer reading programs, students compete to read the most books.

There are several resources that can help you plan a similar activity. A lot of libraries have Pinterest boards set up with book ideas (some are left over from summer reading programs – but hey, don’t we all wish it were summertime all year round?). Another great Pinterest board has links to all kinds of library-based activities to complete with your students, but my favorite is this awesome March Madness-esque bracket, where students read each book, then vote on the winner. Why not start a blog where students have to post their rationales for choosing the winner based on some good, old-fashioned CCSS criteria like an analysis of the author’s craft and structure?

Not interested in tracking the number of books your students read, but rather the actual time they spend reading? You may have heard of a service called MyON, which provides students with thousands of eBooks (they can read on or offline). The system allows teachers to assign specific books, but it will also just recommend books to students based on Lexile level (derived from a diagnostic test students take when they start using it). Then, the system tracks how many minutes each student spends reading.

You could pull up the dashboard for your class each day on the interactive whiteboard and spend a moment tracking who is in the lead. You’ll see those times start to soar as the finish line looms.

What is your favorite activity to encourage your students to read? Post about it below in the comments!